5 Strategies to Get More Real In-person Meetups Off of Twitter

Do you ever put hours and hours into your Twitter habit a week only to feel like you’re not getting much traction? What’s the payoff? Most believe that social media rarely results in a sale. Or maybe you post, get your content shared, have a high following but then think, now what? So today we have really dug into and wanted to share what it really instigates to get a face to face meet-up with the people you’re interacting with.

Follow your clients, friends, business partners, competitors, suppliers, vendors and contractors. When you follow another account on Twitter you are showing that you care about what they are posting and are ultimately subscribing to their feed. When another account sees that you are following them they will either appreciate the support and follow you back or be intrigued by your profile and investigate further to find out who you are and what you do. Twitter is awesome that it can help you easily scan your g-mail account to ensure you are following all of your connections that have a twitter profile.

2. Connect with people who have connected with similar experts in your field

When you have followed all of the people you know, it’s time to look at your competitors and start following the people they follow and those that follow them. These are people that are interested in your niche and industry so they will more than likely be interested in your brand and what you have to offer and follow and engage with you. It is a perfect opportunity to get in front of a wide audience that may or may not know about you.

Twitter is also great that it is easy to search and find accounts based on the keywords within your industry. For example, at Snap we’re interested in following accounts that are interested in the digital space in Minneapolis, within the search bar on Twitter I can type in, “Minneapolis Digital Marketing” and twitter will immediately pull up all of the top tweets, accounts, videos, or photos. If you click on the “accounts” tab you can quickly scan and follow a large amount of profiles that are talking about those keywords. Just as easily, you can like, or re-tweet a ton of valuable content that is industry related by clicking on “top.” Here you are able to view all of the top tweets in a live stream.

3. Create a list of 10 people you’d really like to connect with and Favorite and Re-tweet for a Month

Once you have followed a substantial amount of people you will quickly start to see your following base grow, so now is the time to start talking. Create a list of influencers that you really want to connect with and start talking to them.

Posting, engaging and sharing makes us feel connected. Whether you support that cause, know the product, or genuinely believe in the piece of content you are supporting you are connecting yourself to that individual that creates a deeper bond. And luckily, twitter makes it extremely easy to like, share, mention, and comment back.

Tweet out to people. Send direct messages to profiles you would like to be connected to. Introduce yourself, thank them for sharing content that you appreciate, and make sure to share it if you like it!

Reply to people that are talking to you @reply. This is powerful as it shows up in the twitter stream of not only people who follow you but who you are replying to. Again this gets you in front of a larger audience that may not know about you and your brand.

4. Ask! Don’t hang back in the shadows, be friendly and schedule a coffee meet-up with low commitment.

Once you have gotten in front of the right people and have developed an trusted relationship, it’s time to take it to the next level. Make it about them, not you. Ask them to grab coffee on you, to hear more about them, their business, brand, and value. Once you have locked in the date, develop the relationship in person and sell without selling and whenever they need your service, they will come to you!

Make sure you don’t jump on the gun on this and ask for a meet-up prior to you developing that trusted relationship. People turn to online influencers that they know and trust when it comes to buying decisions more now than even looking into the products themselves. So if you have chatted enough online about your, your brand, value, and things you believe in and have connected on that social level, they will come to your for your business.

5. Find out what events people are going to and attend, mix-and-match social media interaction with meet-up interaction and get more traction with new relationships.

I know this might sound creepy, but it’s brilliant! I’ve found it highly beneficial to get creative with the ways I nudge and interact with people on social media, and I think it can be a real and legitimate way to stoke new relationships. Don’t think of it as either/or, mix your real life interactions with the behind the computer or phone screen ones for the best results.

Twitter is the best way to find out about upcoming events, meet-ups, and parties. Real time live engagement using hash-tags gives you the perfect opportunity to hear about the value of the events, jump in on conversations and interact with your audience but finding out and asking who is all attending the event. And once you are at the event, Twitter is the perfect platform to not only be at the event but be interacting with others online while the event is going on. It is the perfect way to deepen the connection and have conversations both online and offline.